Automated test equipment (ATE) can be any testing assembly that performs a test on a device, semiconductor wafer or die, etc. ATE assemblies may be used to execute automated tests that quickly perform measurements and generate test results that can then be analyzed. An ATE assembly may be anything from a computer system coupled to a meter, to a complicated automated test assembly that may include a custom, dedicated computer control system and many different test instruments that are capable of automatically testing electronics parts and/or semiconductor. Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) is commonly used within the field of electrical chip manufacturing. ATE systems both reduce the amount of time spent on testing devices to ensure that the device functions as designed and serve as a diagnostic tool to determine the presence of faulty components within a given device before it reaches the consumer.
In testing devices or products, e.g. after production, it is crucial to achieve among others a high product quality, an estimation of the device or product performance, feedback concerning the manufacturing process and finally a high customer contentment. Usually a plurality of tests is performed in order to ensure the correct function of a device or product. Since testing a semiconductor device or a product, in general, may be quite expensive in terms of capital cost for required test equipment and cost in terms of required test time, testing of a device or product should be performed in an efficient way. Therefore, devices are often tested in parallel to reduce test time.
Testing of the radio frequency (RF) functionality of integrated circuit chips and the compliance of such functionality with an intended radio standard or specification, e.g., Bluetooth™, GSM™, etc., can be challenging from an efficiency standpoint because the number of RF ports on standard automated test equipment is limited. Typically, a pick and place machine will place the chip device to be tested in a suitably constructed test board of specialized ATE. The ATE applies the appropriate test signals to the device under test (DUT) and passes or rejects the device. Such individual chip testing exhibits a problem in that it is time consuming and, hence, adds to the overall manufacturing cost. Further, the limited number of RF ports on a typical ATE apparatus prevents testing multiple DUTs in parallel.
Accordingly, testing RF functionality of integrated circuit chips using conventional systems is costly. Trying to test for RF power and frequency using the limited number of RF ports makes multi-site testing and parallel execution of tests difficult. The cost per test (COT) may typically be unacceptable for customers especially where low cost integrated circuit chips are involved, since the cost of the test may be a significant component of the price per unit. In some cases, the COT may be up to 10% of the overall cost of manufacturing integrated wireless RF-containing system on a chip (SOC) devices.